Emily Dickinson is considered one of history’s greatest poets. From the age of 24, she never left the walls of her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts.
She completed her education at a woman’s seminary in 1848, and until 1854 her life was uneventful. After a visit to Philadelphia with her family in that year, she retired to her home.
Some historians believe she did this because she had fallen in love with a married clergyman in Philadelphia and knew that a relationship between the two of them was impossible.
She wrote more than 1,700 poems, but only a few were published while she was alive. In 1890 and 1891, two books of her poems were published, her genius was recognized, and she became world famous.
Her poems were usually quite brief and dealt with nature, death, love, and immortality in very down to earth settings.
